A year after LightDreams’ 1981 debut private press LP Islands in Space came and went without a trace, Canadian songwriter Paul Marcano and his collaborating musicians quietly released an even more sprawling opus titled 10,001 Dreams. The album was only available on home-dubbed 90-minute cassettes; its 2016 reissue was credited to both Marcano and LightDreams. It continues with the previous album’s themes of deep introspection and space colonization, even returning to the phrase “islands in space” during the lyrics of the opening title track as well as the concluding “Building Islands in Space (Reprise).” Essentially, the sound hasn’t changed – the songs are still made up of multi-layered, occasionally backwards guitars, lush synthesizers, wizard-like vocals, and no drums. It’s still inspired by psychedelia and prog rock, but with an airy, weightless feeling akin to ambient and new age music. Even if it sounds similar, it’s more ambitious, stretching some of the compositions out into lengthy epics. Some of the selections on 10,001 Dreams were previously written and recorded by Marcano on a few of his many unreleased cassettes dating back to the early ‘70s (one of which, 1973’s Valley Flutes, was eventually released in 2015, and bears eerie similarities to Brian Eno’s Discreet Music, which appeared in 1975). Others, particularly on the second half, were co-written by fellow LightDreamers Andre Martin and Cory Rhyon (both of whom, sadly, did not live to see the album’s reissue). The album is actually at its best during the longer tracks, where the musicians ponder existence for extended periods of time. Mega-trippy, revelatory “Visual Breakfast” alternates between wayward drifting, sunny pop, and darker ruminations. Much of the album’s second half is taken up by a suite which begins with Martin’s isolated, trembling “Being Here,” which questions one’s singular place in the universe but reassures that “it happens to the best of us every now and then, and that’s OK!” From there, the group segue into several alien dreamscapes which are far more experimental and otherworldly than the usual LightDreams songs. Given that the suite lasted almost 37 minutes on the original cassette, it was split into two sides for the vinyl reissue, and edited down for the CD release. Following this is “Maj Moorhsum,” which couldn’t possibly be anything but a guitar improvisation played in reverse, so that’s exactly what it is. Islands in Space is definitely a more focused statement, but any fans of that album ready for a much deeper exploration will find 10,001 Dreams to be absolutely immersive….by Paul Simpson …..~

[10;001 Dreams is] a perfect distillation of [Paul Marcano’s] musical essence: thoughtful, psychedelic, pop-oriented music but with a deeply progressive ear for song structure and the intuitive glow of a well-crafted lyrical refrain.” (Jack D. Fleischer—10, 001 Dreams, Liner Notes)

A thematic sequel of sorts to the sci-fi psych odyssey exploring cosmic ideology that was the British Columbians debut—LightDreams’ Islands In Space—10;001 Dreams from 1982 finds its leader, Paul Marcano, edging closer lyrically to the utopian outer space colonization he’d previously conjured while under the sway of physicist/space activist/author Gerard K. O’Neill. The ever-present percussive acoustic layers from Islands In Space remain, while the New Age-like keyboard washes are nearly totally supplanted by mellow, wickedly fuzzed, floating layers of dreamy, treated, atmospheric electric guitar. As scribe Jack D. Fleischer says, at the time of the recording the group had reached, “a certain kind of psychedelic revelation that had become completely frontal,” and that is emphasized by this increased use of soaring electric coloring.

Originally issued solely on cassette, Marcano and Lightdreams’ home-recorded (yet hi-fi) lysergic creations give nod to the original British psychedelic and progressive eras, while maintaining a firm foot in hook-based, melodic folk’n’pop and are a guaranteed treasure for those searching for unheard and otherworldly joys……~

Picking up on this gem that slipped out in 2016, but still remains available in double LP glory. Paul Marcano and his band LightDreams had one full album (as simply LightDreams) in 1982. The Beatles-esque pop was undercut with proggy new age keys for an album that doused itself in sci-fi trappings and psychedelic indulgences. Sadly, the record would pass through rather unnoticed, except by collectors with a keen eye for psych. It stands to reason then that this private press cassette that the band home recorded as a follow-up in 1983 only fell on fewer ears, but its sprawling, syncopated prog-folk approach makes it a gem of a time when the band’s psych-pop was horribly out of fashion.

The record is home-taped, though not scruffy, with a rather clear and present sound. Marcano, along with fellow guitarists John Walker and Cory Rhyon and keyboardist Andre Martin lay their rippling psych vision out without the aid of a rhythm section and the result brings this closer to a fuzz ball of psychedelic folk than the prog holdovers from the ‘70s they’re ostensibly looking to replicate. While they’re shooting for Pink Floyd, the band actually lands somewhere around Bobb Trimble fronting an expanded version of Fresh Maggots, which honestly makes for a dream idea in my book.

The one thing that gets in the way of LightDreams might be their own ambition. The original version of 10,001 Dreams was laid down to a 90-minute tape and the band went for it in every respect. Self-editing was not their forte, though squeezing this onto 2xLP and CD gives a bit of trim to a massive centerpiece suite (originally 30 min) that would give Olivia Tremor Control a run for their money. They excel when the tracks spread out, but don’t tip the scales – sprawling, but not overstuffed – and rambling into introspective trip territory. If you’ve previously missed out on this one and need to bump up the private press psych section on your shelf then this comes quite recommended. …..~

It seems that having paid out more than enough to buy a decent sized car through the years on original and reissues of the psychedelic music of my youth, that in 1982 Canadian Paul Marcano made the album I’ve been searching for all these years to satisfy my craving for the British strain of pop-psych. And I missed it completely.

There is quite a story behind ’10,001 Dreams’ which doesn’t need repeating here as it’s already out there, but basically Marcano as part of a band called LightDreams self-released an album, ‘Islands in Space’, in 1981, which has been described as cosmic folk and which reached only a very limited audience. A year later and with Marcano sharing billing with LightDreams a new set of songs was released as’10,001 Dreams’, a limited edition cassette only issue. Not surprisingly that too passed me by. Just the fact that it was cassette only would have prevented me from making a purchase as cassettes to me were good for one thing only - opening up the possibility of choosing your own music to play in the car.

Now along with Spanish re-issue label Guerssen Records, the fantastically named Got Kinda Lost label has remastered ’10,001 Dreams’ and made it available on CD and double vinyl. These words are being written as the CD edition is playing. The vinyl adds the fourteen minute ‘Primordial Therapy’ to the nine songs on the CD, which is reason enough to put in an order for that as soon as time allows.

Where can you start describing an album as complex yet as accessible as ’10,001 Dreams’? Since 2012 the UK’s most prolific yet under-rated musician/author/ filmmaker Chris Wade has been releasing albums of his own unique take on pysch/prog/folk under the Dodson & Fogg banner, which although having one eye firmly focused on the classic sounds of the past sounded totally contemporary. There are times when listening to ’10,001 Dreams’ that Wade comes to mind. Marcano explores 60’s pyschedelia more deeply than Wade has and on ’10,001 Dreams’ takes Wade-type guitar wig-outs a stage further. There’s less of Wade’s folk tendencies but both artists share the talent to make home-made yet strangely hi-fi sounding fascinating soundscapes; Wade has a tendency to reign in his creations and therefore makes shorter pieces. At times the listener feels that Wade fades some of his songs just at the point where they are taking off; that’s no criticism just an indication that you don’t want to leave the place he’s taken you just yet. Marcano lets his music flow on so the pieces of music are given chance to develop, and even though the opening title cut is nearly fourteen minutes long there’s not a second that’s wasted or where the listener thinks “next, please!” Like Wade’s music the songs are so well structured that they are irresistible.

While ’10,001 Dreams’ is so obviously influenced by 60’s psychedelia and for those who heard it on its original release in 1982 it must have sounded so out of time, today it sounds totally contemporary. The title track opens with panned guitar, immediately finding a place in the heart of any 60’s psych-pop fan. Marcano’s vocals are floating somewhere deep in the mix while this wall of melodic guitars dart from channel to channel (‘10,001 Dreams’ is, like many psych albums, best appreciated on headphones and listened to alone where you can drink in all the sounds). The vocals eventually become clearer but not before the ears have been massaged by some of the most inspiring electric guitar we’ve heard since, well, the last Dodson & Fogg album actually. Fourteen minutes and the song doesn’t outstay its welcome, which is no mean feat.

‘Steam 111’ is one of the songs that is shorn of Marcano’s vocals but when the guitar playing is as inventive as that displayed on this piece they are not really missed. At just under six minutes it’s one of the shorter songs on the album but the different layers that Marcano brings to the track again keep the listener interested for the duration. Panning again features heavily towards the end of the track, and it’s another of those soundscapes that take you to wherever you choose to go.

‘Everyone Grows and Grows’ finds Marcano inject his psychedelia with more poppier leanings. It’s a dreamy little trip through ’67 and recalls Pink Floyd as much as it does the other pop-psych bands of the era. It would have been termed experimental way back then, but now it just sounds like a lost classic from those golden days. It really is a little classic. ‘Visual Breakfast’ follows and with its driving bass buried under shimmering guitars it again recalls Pink Floyd. It is maybe a couple of years down the line from the previous song but the influence is obvious. This particular soundscape twists and turns many times with its gentle, relaxing lead guitar lines before the vocals appear at around the four-minute mark when Marcano suddenly takes the song into another direction totally. It develops into a jaunty pop/rock song, the vocals to the fore in the mix for once before the panning returns with more shimmering guitar work. Then, without noticing the joins, a Floyd-like ballad emerges complete with what sounds like a bird fluttering between your ears. At almost eleven minutes again there’s not a second wasted and so much ground covered.

Without wishing to cover the album song-by-song mention has to be made of ‘Who Is The One’, another dream set to music, Marcano’s vocals are again deep in the mix, those guitars both gentle and shimmering panning from ear to ear while that driving bass makes another appearance.

‘In Memory of Being Here’ is at twenty-three minutes the longest song on ‘10,001 Dreams’ but is really a suite of six songs segued together; as most of the other tracks on the album go through so many changes and by now you’ve come to expect the unexpected from Paul Marcano it’s no great surprise that he’s created a piece of this length so he can expand even further on his vision. It could be argued that sections like the synth-filled ‘Subtle Arrival’ do notreally add much to the journey and are certainly less essential listening than most of the rest of the album, but as that piece segues into another instrumental section, ‘Something Out of Nothing’, it begins to make more sense. There are some beautiful sounds in there, not always conventional but all the more interesting for that.

There will likely be long essays written about every track on this album, but it doesn’t really matter how deep each individual goes into each song or really what Paul Marcano’s original idea was. The simple fact is that in 1982 Marcano made one of the best psychedelic albums that has ever been produced. Its heart beats in the mid-sixties but it sounds so fresh and relevant today. Maybe even more so than it would have then; one can only guess what effect it would have had on the record-buying teenagers of 1982 had they heard it then. …by….Malcolm Carter …..~

In 1980, Paul Marcano had recorded together with various friends and acquaintances an album, which was published the same year in self-publishing in a small edition as LP. “Islands in Space” by Lightdreams (as Marcano had titled the project) was of course not a big seller, even if Marcano gradually got rid of all 1000 albums. One planned as a double LP successor could not afford under these conditions, so that the same finally appeared in 1982 as a tape cassette, albeit well-filled.

“10001 Dreams” evidently originated in a slightly smaller lineup (the same is nowhere specified - but Martin and Rhyon appear behind some songs as composers), probably largely conceived by Marcano, so that on the cassette Paul Marcano & Light Dreams are to be found as interpreters , Musically there are no worlds between “Islands in Space” and “10001 Dreams”. A weird psychedelic folk program can be found on both albums, dominated by guitar sounds, occasionally backed by electronic and some vocals.

Extensive songs are usually the most, determined by folky acoustic guitars and spacey-yelling e-guitar sounds, relaxed-airy, psychedelic, echo-like networked, emanating a certain cheerful, esoteric-new-age-like West Coast flair that after the 70s of last century sounded as after the 80s. Compared to “Islands in Space”, the instruments used have been slimmed down, so that “10001 Dreams” consistently knits out of the boxes in a similar way. At least you can not say that the first six pieces would be very different from each other.

That changes with the long “In memory of being here”. Synthesizer sounds work their way forward and transform the piece into a pure, expansive, cosmic-sounding, Andre Martin-specific electronic number, which at times glides out of the speakers in a very free-form, almost experimental way. Only after a good 20 minutes do the guitars break through again and bring the suite to a psychedelic reverberation.

In 2017 the material of Got Kinda Lost (a sublabel of Guerssen Records) was re-released on CD and 2xLP. Due to lack of space, the CD lacks the concluding part of “In memory of being here”, which consists of all sorts of echoing and resounding guitar scraps, a good 14 minutes long “Primordial therapy” (which in the LP version is a separate piece on another page is). However, there is a download code, using the same you can download all the material of the original cassette.

A dense mixture of “Cosmic-psych / progressive-folk / new age” over the long term, but still a bit too uniform and brave, can be found on “10001 Dreams”, the lovers of oblique, electrified psych folk-program and electronic (at least the already mentioned “In memory of being here”) but should appeal…..by….Achim Breiling….babyblaue Prog…..~Tracklist A1 10001 Dreams 13:47 A2 Stream III 5:02 A3 Everyone Grows And Grows 5:43 B1 Visual Breakfast 10:49 B2 Who Is The One 6:51 B3 Follow The Stream 4:15 C Being Here 22:18 D1 Primordial Therapy 14:29 D2 Maj Moorhsum 5:45 D3 Buildings Islands In Space (Reprise) 3:43

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